Theresa May must know the EU plans to punish Britain. It has no choice

Theresa May addresses the World Economic Forum at Davos, SwitzerlandCredit:
AP Photo/Michel Euler

A little difference between David Cameron and Theresa May. When Mr Cameron used to give speeches to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he would stroll casually about the stage, speak without notes, and then take numerous questions from his audience. He seemed at home. These were his kind of people.

Today Mrs May gave her first Davos speech as Prime Minister. Glaring out from beneath her Stormtrooper helmet of hair, she stationed herself behind her lectern, read out her script, and then strode straight off.

She invited no questions. Perhaps she suspected they might be unfriendly. The hall, after all, was packed with jetsetting, big-business Europhiles – the type that only three months ago she dismissed as aloof “international elites”, “citizens of nowhere”. She would scarcely have faced a less Brexit-friendly audience in George Osborne’s living room.